5 major causes of visual impairment in children

One of the most urgent problems in the modern world is a vision disorder in children. A huge variety of different gadgets (smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc.) are a real temptation for young researchers. In addition, vision may be impaired for other reasons.

Next, we will discuss the major visual impairment in children and their causes, but on the website you can read about their prevention.

the Main causes of visual impairment in children

1. Cortical vision impairment. It's a neurological disorder which results in unique visual responses to people, educational materials and the environment. When students with these visual / behavioral characteristics there is a loss of visual acuity, it is considered that they have a cortical visual impairment.
2. Retinopathy of prematurity. It is an eye disease that affects premature infants. This disorder in the past was called retrolental fibroplasia. It affects immature blood vessels of the retina. This happens a few weeks after birth. When the development of blood vessels is completed, the risk of catching the disease the child lost.
3. Hypoplasia optic nerve. It refers to the underdevelopment of the optic nerve during pregnancy. Death of the optic nerve fibers when the child develops in utero is a natural process, and hypoplasia of the optic nerve can be the development of this process. Rarely it can occur in one eye (unilateral) but more often in both eyes (bilateral). She is not progressing, is not inherited, cannot be cured and is 1 of the 3 most common causes of visual impairment in children.
4. Albinism. This disease belongs to the group of hereditary. People with albinism have absent or reduced pigment in their eyes skin or hair. They have inherited genes that do not produce normal amounts of pigment, called melanin, which in turn, is necessary for the full development of the retina. The lack of melanin in the developing retina is a major cause of visual impairment in albinism.
5. optic nerve Atrophy. It is a permanent visual impairment caused by damage to the optic nerve. The optic nerve functions like a cable that transmits information from the eyes, which is processed by the brain. It consists of more than 1 million small nerve fibers (axons). When some of these nerve fibers are damaged as a result of the disease, the brain is not receiving complete visual information about the picture and the vision becomes blurred.

Translated by "Yandex.Translate": translate.yandex.ru.